Menu

Life, SSA, God, forever

Monthly Archives: February 2007

So at work we (the journalists) are in the process of getting a new wage agreement. It is about 6 and a half months late because the last one ran out in June last year. The bosses aren’t that sympathetic to journalists needs for wage rises cause they would have given us (or them because I wasn’t there last July) out of the kindness of their hearts. But they didn’t and they are being very slow about it. Like the other newspaper in the area, which is somehow owned by the same family, received a pay rise back in December and we didn’t.

Journalists at country newspapers in Australia don’t really get paid much so every little bit helps. And the conditions aren’t excellent. For example we have to work on weekends without getting paid extra and we have to work about 11 hours in a day before we would get any overtime. And if we suggested we were going to claim for overtime we would be told not to work 11 hours then. But I understand bosses are going to be trying to save money where they can. And it doesn’t seem like there is heaps of money lying around so I don’t think we are being treated outrageously unfairly or anything. There is a plan to fake a sicky on the day before the paper comes out if the negotiations don’t go very well. That doesn’t seem to be very moral. So i’m not sure what to do there…

The union is doing some of the negotiations. I think all the other journalists are members of the union. I was going to join, but then found out it costs $500 a year so I thought I would wait and see. And well I don’t think it is worth it. They basically need to be continually chased to do things. It took them 7 months to start negotiating a new agreement with the country newspaper association. So it could be worth maybe $250 a year, but $500 is a bit much.

On Monday I went and looked at the place I’m moving to and it was pretty nice. Newish, and with air conditioning to battle the hot Aussie summer. I think I will like living there. The guy was pretty nice and we will hopefully have a third housemate so it won’t be much more expensive then where I’m living now. The place I’m living in now has grown on me in a way. It’s an experience to live with people who are totally different from me, and helpful for journalism because it can give me an insight into how others think and do life. But I’m not going to be sad to leave.

The guy I had/have a crush on has moved on and I didn’t really notice his absence. His friends were massively missing him. Like making scarecrow models of him in the loungeroom in tribute to him. I wonder what it’s like to be a person that can make people miss them so much and have such a close relationship with friends that they need to know every little detail of their friend’s new life in the big city. And yet I know that things are not really that simple. Unfortunate life circumstances, perhaps at home, led to a desire to find deep relationships elsewhere. Maybe there is an overly large desire to people-please, and when you have an appealing personality, balanced with the right amount of vulnerability this trait, which can turn into a negative clingy desperation in others, becomes a big positive. Then there is the extraverion that can always think of something warm and interesting to say, but is something that can make an introvert tired just thinking about it. Anyway all this is a convoluted way of saying that though I was slightly envious it wasn’t so much a pity party.

Though I am not the kind of person that seeks minor details about everything from my friends. One of my closest friends began a new course on Thursday (I thought he had started the week before) and after thinking about this I sent him a text to see how it was going. Want a friend; be a friend and all that annoying true stuff. It turned out he had begun that very morning and I was accidently ahead of myself, which shows how well I keep track of other people’s life events. In all honesty as an introvert I found the full on-ness of non-stop people time at high school draining. I much prefer spending a few hours with someone on the weekend and enjoying it and then having a break again.

Work is still going pretty good. I still enjoy it most of the time. I enjoy going out and taking photos of people and trying to take good photos. I enjoy being able to write some interesting stories, such as about a youth pastor who’s youth group has increased in size from 16 to 60 in about year. Or a story about a race caller who was there when three horses finished exactly at the same time. The people I’m working with are all pretty good as well, except for a couple of unfriendlyish type people, but that’s life.

On the negative side, sitting down staring at a computer screen all day isn’t always the most enjoyable thing to do. The newspaper I work on isn’t very well managed. It’s kinda like the TV show ‘fawlty towers,’ which is a British comedy about a mismanaged hotel. There’s no major direction and somethings are left undone sometimes. We are also getting a new editor soon, who I think used to edit the competition, and he must be bad or something because some of the other journo’s there weren’t very happy about it.

I’m going to be moving houses soon. About two and a half months after I first intended too. It did improve. I got used to it and I got more sleep. In fact I have not had sleeping problems since a horrid week before Christmas when my sleep was disturbed every night. I’m still not sure where I’m going yet. I’ve advertised for the past four weeks and haven’t had too many offers. The one I’m thinking about is with a 25-year-old guy pretty close to town. It’s a bit more expensive. The one thing I’m not too sure about is when I mentioned who it was with at work yesterday. They said they thought he might be gay. (Not as a fact, but as a conclusion they’ve made). He’s not hot or anything so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem even if it was true.